CSBG Archive

Batman #686 Review

Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert come together to give us a wonderful “funeral” for Batman that is a unique and clever celebration of Batman’s almost seventy year history.

The basic concept of “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” is that a bunch of Batman’s friends and foes show up at Crime Alley for Batman’s funeral. Then, much like Gaiman’s classic “World’s End” storyline in Sandman (which, in turn, was a cool riff on The Canterbury Tales), they stand up to tell stories of how they killed off Batman.

The first story is told by Catwoman, and it is a great mixture of both Robin Hood’s death (well, one version, at least – and even then, only one part of it) and classic noir stylings.

The second story is by Alfred, and it is a stunning take on the whole Batman Rogues Gallery. Very, very cool. Essentially, think of Alfred hiring actor friends to pretend to be super criminals. What a clever idea and the sadness of it all is executed beautifully by Gaiman.

The whole book is put together beautifully, as it is clear that Gaiman and Andy Kubert have spent a whole lot of time planning this book out. Kubert’s pencils are as impressive as they’ve ever been in the past, and he captures the various styles requested of him by Gaiman wonderfully.

The little touches really made the comic, though, especially the introduction of the major Batman villains, from Catwoman to Two-Face to Joker. Their entrances were almost note-perfect.

Batman fans who appreciate the history of the character sure are in for a treat, as Morrison’s great Last Rites storyline is followed up by this story, which is likely even better.

Both amazingly dense and lush stories evoking the past of Batman but also telling an interesting story in the present.

Highly Recommended.

I’m intentionally being sparse on the details, as the details really make this comic, more so than most. Go read it!

27 Comments

The basic concept of “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” is that a bunch of Batman’s friends and foes show up at Crime Alley for Batman’s funeral. Then, much like Gaiman’s classic “World’s End” storyline in Sandman (which, in turn, was a cool riff on The Canterbury Tales), they stand up to tell stories of how they killed off Batman.

Isn’t what you describe a homage to the classic Batman The Animates series story “Almost Got ‘Im?”

dhnaka

It reminds me of the “Where Were You On The Night Batman Was Killed?” series that ran in Batman 291-294 (although I only read the second part). I agree with your review. Very well done issue. Looking forward to part 2.

dhnaka

Michael

Not really, as that was villains describing various deathtraps, whereas the Catwoman and Alfred stories in this issue are about as far removed from that as you can get. The Alfred story held hints of Don Quixote, I thought.

I’ve no idea where Gaiman’s going with this (Batman himself seems to be viewing the proceedings, albeit in some sort of disembodied form, and the characters are a jumble of versions from different eras and iterations), but darned if it wasn’t a fun read.

Unfortunately, the conclusion’s been postponed until five weeks from now.

Brian Cronin

Spiffy

From previous entries I don’t think Cronin is going to agree with me on this next part, but I think this FAR outshone anything Morrison has done with Batman. Gaiman just GETS how to mythologize all of this in a way that’s warm and touching, but doesn’t fall into sappy oversentiment either. Morrison’s approach to mythologizing Batman always left me feeling cold. This left with me a glow.

Kubert plays with the art throughout, and the plethora of references is just fantastic — I was a bit baffled initially when I spotted the DCAU Joker inside, but when the direction of the story became obvious, then that was explained.

The one that really amuses me though is the giant typewriter billboard. Never mind getting “Goddamn” by the Comics Code, how’d they get THAT by?

Simon

DanLarkin

In one of the Astro City collections, Gaiman wrote an introduction where he mentions plotting out an epic Batman story with Busiek on a road trip just for fun. I wonder if some of those ideas are being used here.

This was a cool issue. I loved the changing art styles Kubert used. I don’t think he’s ever been this good.

littleconvoy

What it really reminds me of, structure-wise, is Gaiman’s “The Wake” arc for Sandman. Even lines like Selina’s “I came here… and that’s all.” I did think it would have been interesting, taking note of the seating arrangement, to have Two-Face sit at the very back–with his chair in the middle of the aisle.

universaladdress

Rebis

“It reminds me of the “Where Were You On The Night Batman Was Killed?” series that ran in Batman 291-294.”

Agreed. There are many obvious differences, but it struck me that Gaiman’s tale somewhat echoes that old storyline from the ’70s. After all, it features (so far) two different stories about Batman’s death, which comes at the hands of two different villains — the (somewhat-reluctant) Catwoman and the Riddler. They were the first two who testified in that old Batman arc (which I very fondly recall as two of the earliest comics I owned as a young kid). The third chapter (with Luthor) went off the rails, but it rallied in the end with the Joker’s finale chapter.

Anyway, we’ll see soon enough where Gaiman’s going with this. He’s obviously drawing on many different decades of Bat-stories; I don’t think it’s at all a stretch to note that “Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed” is one of them.

Not incidentally, those issues (esp., again, the first two) featured some kick-ass Aparo covers. DC just used the (slightly modified) artwork from the first issue as the cover of the recent “R.I.P.”-inspired collection of Batman’s-death tales: http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=31389&zoom=4